An experiential learning journal by Colby Crutchfield

February 17, 2025

Over winter break, I was accepted into the Kohl Centre at Virginia Tech’s Inaugural class Agri-Food Finance Fellows. Soon after acceptance, Mario Ortez, collegiate assistant professor of agribusiness and entrepreneurship and James A. and Renae C. Pearson Collegiate Faculty Fellow, approached me with the opportunity to work with James and Aaron Black of CLR Systems. Since then, I have led a team of students in Dr. Ortez’s Applied Economic Problem-Solving class: Austin Funk, Atley Miller, and Salem Sifford, working directly with James to envision the future of his innovative invention: A combine cover crop seeder.

James and Aaron were thinking about ideas to improve their row crop operation in Southern Virginia and trying to cut back on time and resources spent going over the fields. So they thought about better ways to apply cover crop seeds after harvest. James explained that his idea came from the time and money wasted moving between fields. He thought about ways to eliminate the need for an extra trip with a seed drill to each field. During the next off-season, James and his brother brainstormed ideas and attached a small hopper to the side of their combine to use in the fall of 2020, the first working prototype.

This type of innovation is extremely important to the profitability and sustainability of agriculture as we move into the future. Though the time saved by this may seem priceless, it’s not the only savings made. By using this invention, early estimates suggest this product will save between $13-$15 per acre for farmers in fuel conserved, less equipment used, and getting the cover crops seeded at the right time. Given the tight margins in agriculture today, due to low commodity prices and high input cost, innovation like this is essential for ongoing improvement in the industry.

During our first meeting as a group, everyone was very enthusiastic and eager to take on the workload to help CLR Systems. We then set up a meeting with James to introduce the team and allow him to explain what CLR Systems is to us in a more in-depth manner. In this meeting, we discussed the goals of the company, how we should begin our research, and forecast projections.

Our group’s main goal is to assist CLR Systems in boosting production and delivering their product to as many farmers as possible, helping them save as much money as possible. We are currently studying records from the USDA and other online resources to forecast a market for them. We are using historical production costs to project future costs if production were increased. By working with James and with the support of Virginia Tech, we believe we can help achieve the goal of enhancing the profitability of row crop farms regionally and beyond, much like James has accomplished with his farm.